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Article published In:
(De)legitimising EUrope in times of crisis
Edited by Franco Zappettini and Samuel Bennett
[Journal of Language and Politics 21:2] 2022
► pp. 255–276

Attack of the critics

Metaphorical delegitimisation in Viktor Orbán’s discourse during the Covid-19 pandemic

ORCID logo | Corvinus University of Budapest
| Centre for Social Sciences
This paper presents a case study of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s delegitimisation discourse on the European Union in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. We focused on how the EU and its member states were depicted metaphorically in PM Orbán’s weekly radio interviews. Relying on the discourse dynamics approach, we identified the metaphorical expressions the PM used to legitimise the crisis management of the Hungarian government and delegitimise critical comment from international voices in the context of the European Union. Our results showed that supranational bodies were depicted as authority figures and this image was reinforced by the use of particular verbal motifs. Rhetorical ambiguity was also found regarding Western Europe, whereas the notion of friendship was propagated when referring to the relationship between Hungary and the Visegrád countries Czechia, Poland, and Slovakia.
Keywords: Covid-19, delegitimisation, discourse dynamics approach, metaphorical language
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.(De)legitimising the European Union in the rhetoric of Fidesz and PM Orbán
  • 3.Metaphors and political communication
  • 4.Corpus and methodology
  • 5.Viktor Orbán’s (de)legitimising rhetoric through metaphors
    • 5.1Allies and enemies in the war on Covid-19
    • 5.2Personification: Brussels and the member states
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 21 January 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.21068.sza
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